My latest thoughts on the GOP candidates

I haven’t been able to keep up with the presidential race as much as I wanted to in the past few weeks. I completely missed the CNBC debate debacle (although I saw the clip of Cruz’s awesome takedown of the media), and I only caught the first half of the Fox Business debate. It seems as if the candidates are running in place at this point, and everyone is waiting for some big movement from one or more of them.

Here is my breakdown, in no particular order:

Rand Paul: He is still my candidate. He’s not perfect, and he sure isn’t a very good debater, but I was glad to see him find his voice in the last debate. Although I like most of his policy positions, I think he comes across too much as a college professor lecturing everyone on the correct way to do things. He also seems a bit frustrated at the stupidity of the race (which I don’t blame him for). I really hope he can catch some steam and make a serious bid.

John Kasich: I didn’t think there could be a more annoying candidate than Trump, but I think Kasich is. Actually, Trump inspires more loathing, while Kasich is just plain annoying to listen to. This guy should be bumped from the debates.

Carly Fiorina: Here is what I don’t understand: people seem to crave outsiders this year, as can be seen from Carson and Trump leading the polls. But of the three true outsiders, Fiorina is the only one who seems remotely qualified. In fact, she seems like the most intelligent of all the candidates, and even the most “presidential.” Yet she can’t get any traction in the polls. This makes me think that most people do not take the presidential race seriously, and are simply following their emotions of the moment. The fact that Fiorina is polished is probably hurting her, which is ridiculous.

Ben Carson: How on earth this guy is at or near the top of the polls is beyond me. Yes, he seems like a nice guy, and yes, the media hit job on him is stupid and only helps him. But how can anyone think he could be a good president? As I’ve said on Twitter:

I’ll say it again: Ben Carson would make a great neighbor, as long as you don’t live next to the White House. #GOPDebate

Marco Rubio: He comes across as someone who was created in a GOP robot candidate factory. He doesn’t get me excited at all, and I can’t see him being anything other than a GOP establishment guy. Yes, he’s better than any of the Democrats, but that’s a really low bar.

Ted Cruz: There is a lot I like about Cruz, but I admit he still makes me nervous. I don’t know why, but I can’t seem to embrace him. I don’t like his foreign policy very much, but I don’t like most of these candidates’ foreign policies. Maybe I’ll warm up to him over time.

Jeb Bush: When I was writing this, I realized I only had seven of the eight candidates listed, and for a moment I couldn’t remember who the eighth was. That’s all you need to know about Jeb’s campaign thus far.

I don’t really care about the other candidates (although I’m happy Christie was booted off the main stage). Hopefully we’ll see some winnowing here soon and we can see the top few candidates square off without the distractions of the lower-tier candidates.

Mike17

As a non-American I know next to nothing about these people. However, I note the omission of Rick Santorum. Has he pulled out? If not what’s your objection to him?

Santorum is still in the race, but his polls numbers are so low that he was in the “undercard” debate. He has no chance to become President, or even to impact the race. That is mostly why I ignored him.

Santorum seems to be serious about his Catholic faith, which I admire, but he also seems to take the standard Republican line on most issues, including foreign policy. I would prefer a candidate that was a little less establishment.

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Catholic, husband, father, author, technologist, and baseball fanatic. I write about the things I love.